Detroit Recap and Max

This is, is off track.

Hello and welcome to another episode of Off Track with Hinch and Rossi.

Hi guys. It's like, it's over.

Thank God, Detroit. It's finally over. No way.

But yes, Detroit always, but I was just referring to May.

Yeah, May. Mm-hmm.

I know it's officially June, but like, because we just have races.

Do you remember when we used to like go to Road America next week or Texas or something and like there wasn't even a break one year after Detroit, Wasn't it Indy?

No, it was no.

'cause Texas, they always, they always wanted to noval before indie in the good old days. No, no,

No.

But no. But yeah, old days, yes.

But then I, I wanna say we used, 'cause it used to be in June, I feel like we used to go Detroit to Texas.

No. Too hot. Maybe COVID days.

Dude. Do you remember 21 when we got the week

off after Indy?

It was the greatest thing ever. I think it was 21.

It was 20. 'cause we did it in August.

No, no. 'cause 'cause it wasn't the same.

It was, I I feel like it was 21. Mm whatever.

We did it once and it was glorious and I was like, oh, this is clearly gonna be the new norm. This,

It's all stupid.

It's ridiculous. Still Feeling sick, Alex. Yeah.

I'm not great. Did you fly your airplane to Detroit?

I did. It's, it is weird.

You don't recover from sickness when you don't really sleep or have any Time.

Why is she sleeping, pal recover.

Oh, just, you know, just partying a lot, lot of time at Envy, .

Yeah. So the full phase of,

of just constantly having somebody in the house being sick.

It, it does go away eventually in parenting.

I've been told it has not yet.

For me there's just like, it's a rolling basis of I'm sick or Hazel sick or her mom is sick and we just, it just feels like it's continually passed amongst our two places. Yeah.

No, it's fun And yeah, you're, you're well over a decade into that process, so that's fun for everybody involved.

Um, I guess, I guess we should talk about Detroit, unless there's anything not Detroit related.

Do you want to cover first?

I don't think there was anything of interest going into the weekend, right?

Not that we didn't cover. I don't know. Did we cover,

We did that stuff.

Yeah, I thought so. So I mean, I guess the,

the one announcement going into the weekend was, uh, Dale Coin racing.

Dale Coin hired a bunch of people, Michael Cannon returns and someone else.

Mike Culver, who's another experienced guy.

I've, I've worked with Mike before.

He's, he's done, I mean he's worked a bunch of mini car teams.

I worked with him on Month of May programs when, uh, he would come run like the third car at Schmidt back in the day or whatever.

Um, but no, he was, he's great man. Super nice guy.

And, uh, very experienced engineer.

So yeah, they, the, the question that we were kind of talking about over the weekend on it, I, on the broadcast at least, 'cause I never got the chance to get down to, to Dale's place to ask was like, was this kind of always the plan?

Because obviously we know that Mike Cannon had signed for Prema and then if it was December or January or something, it was announced that he was leaving for what I like to say artistic differences.

Um, that's A good way of putting it.

So like if, let's say if it was December, like six month gardening leave kind of puts you to the end of May.

So maybe that was always sort of on the cards.

Uh, and then Colver had a month of May program he was running.

I think he ran Jack in, uh, in Indie at Dryer.

So he would've been committed through May.

So maybe the plan with the two guys they had was always going to be swap it out.

Um, 'cause you'd hard, it'd be hard to argue it based on performance when, like Rena said, two top tens coming into the 500 and was, he was like 10th in points.

So I don't think it was performance related necessarily.

So I'm gonna, I'm gonna just assume that's why I have no official, uh, reasoning to say that.

So please don't take that as gospel.

Anybody in the paddock that would no different. Please don't yell at me.

That's, no, that's, that's good assumptions.

We do a lot of that on this podcast.

We try and make our best educated guests On.

Yeah. But then I chunk things,

but I, I'm occasionally reminded how many people in the paddock listen to the podcast and much as we shake be like, these guys are <inaudible> morons.

Like, how do they not know what's happening?

And they're like, it's one thing, like we can sound smart enough to people that aren't in IndyCar, but a lot of people in IndyCar listen to this and it's like, oh, you Guys.

But I think, I think, I think everyone knows, uh, almost eight years on that we are <inaudible> morons. True.

Yeah. True. We have not done anything

to hide that. Right.

No, I, I think more than anything they just accept that it's looks like a gross lack of effort or preparation going into these shows.

Like we could easily figure some of these things out, but we make most of this stuff up on the fly and Have no interest in really getting the real information either.

No, no, no. I don't wanna deal work.

Absolutely not. Could you imagine actually being like a

journalist and like having to actually no.

Sounds exhausting, Corroborate stories and such. No, thank

You.

You need at least three sources. No. Mm, no.

Or like having a plan, like a run of show My head , right?

Yeah. Pretty good. It's pretty, it's better than WikiEd

Your work the opposite of what James is thinking. ,

I didn't know that I had this opinion until James had a different opinion and now Until we established what James' opinion was, now I know exactly what I think. No, I'm not talented.

Relapse. .

Um, so that was yeah, kind of the defacto news I think going into the weekend.

Um, I heard this rumor that we might be going back to Bell Isle. No,

It's a, it's a dumb, it's no, no. So, okay. There

Is, So is it Yes.

No, I'm gonna take the opposite stance here.

I think we're going back to Bell Isles.

We are not, uh, so last year, um, okay, so the Ren center, the, the GM building, The Renaissance san Uh, the, the race goes around as kind of a, a flagship skyline affecting building of Detroit, uh, was built back in the seventies.

Um, and Ford actually built it.

I found this out this weekend, which I thought was very interesting and GM actually bought it during the recession from Ford as like a kind of a, you we have more money so we can buy your building anyways.

Um, which is what a what a power move.

Um, but it was built in the seventies, uh, obviously not LEED certified.

Um, incredibly inefficient building from a and Whoever designed it was clearly on drugs.

It is so difficult to navigate that thing.

It looks like it oh, for is made for Dr. Seuss's brain.

Like none of the floors get, go to it, wind up.

It makes no sense. It's the dumbest building I've

Ever been.

That's not what I, I wasn't talking about efficiency in terms of getting somewhere. I was talking about efficiency

I'm saying as Well. Right,

Right. Um,

It's falling apart.

I got the whole inside scoop falling apart.

Um, no one really wants to work on it.

The cost, the, the amount it would cost to bring it like up to today's standards is like triple what it would cost to just tear it down and start over. Um,

Now who's laughing?

Ford first? GM ,

Right?

So, uh, there was, there was a lot of rumors in last year, um, in 24 that the reen was gonna close.

Um, and that demolition was essentially gonna start and thus you couldn't have a racetrack around a demolition site, construction reasons.

Right. And all of that was on, was kind

of on a, on a trajectory.

Um, but like a lot of these things, it's not just one person that is making these decisions and it's actually, it's a, it's a vote and the city's involved and council's involved and it's not just, there's a lot of different things going on.

So it seems that the conclusion that has been come that has, we have gotten to between GM and the city and and all involved is waiting until the end of 2027 to tear it down because there is a college basketball, I believe tournament coming into town or football.

One of them, a college sports tournament is coming into town and they don't wanna like evaporate the skyline.

Um, so after that it would be torn down, which is why I believe we just signed a three year extension to continue going back there.

So we will be going back to Lyle just not next Year.

Well, not until 27 at the earliest, potentially 28. Right.

You made it sound like that was a really dumb thing to say, but I feel like, sorry, That because there Was a year ago it was No, no, because there was a period of time where like this was the end.

Like this year was the end because it was coming down, so.

Got it, got it.

We're not going back to Baille next year. Next year unfortunately.

Right. But there might be a chance we're going

back at some point knowing How we do things though, as a series, we just won't race to Detroit.

I mean, what if you had that weekend after the 500 off or National? Oh, Tim, you

Shut your mouth national speed away.

Don't you dare. Don't you dare me.

That'd be pretty tease med. Am I as action? Yeah, dude,

I wonder if we could do it.

Like, I know there's all these reasons why we haven't in the past and I get them all and I agree with them all, but like, I wonder if like, we could figure that out.

Probably not. Anyways. Um,

Good, good chat.

So we're backed in the streets.

We're back on our nine corner, 1.65 mile street circuit,

which on paper looks like the most boring racetrack on Earth.

But the guys after year one seemed to think that it was, that it raced Okay.

And it was mildly entertaining to drive.

Is that how you felt going into this weekend?

Mm-hmm. No, I think it, it, it,

the novelty of it has worn off a little bit.

And I don't know if, and I, I don't want to be these, this podcast or these people that continually bring this up, but like, I don't know if the hybrid just made it just extra <inaudible>.

Right. Um, because there were, I don't mind bumps.

It was like the first year was, was way too bumpy.

Like it was just ridiculous. Right? Yeah.

Like it was actually like causing you headaches and like back problems.

2024 was a pretty big step forward, like on the, on the main street down to turn three and it became kind of a passing opportunity even though there was lots of shunts and it was like, it, they, they, they fixed a lot of the really problematic areas.

Um, and then they actually took another step and improved more problematic areas in 2025 with repaving a section and continually to work on with the city and, and trying to make it smoother, um, to as much as they could.

And it just was a, it was just, I don't, I didn't talk to one driver bar minus Kyle or Colton who was like enjoying driving laps around there.

Like, it was just, it was just not, not fun.

Like you could, you could feel a noticeable difference.

I mean, again, I it's hard for you.

I'm trying to, I'm trying to isolate your situation specifically.

'cause you've switched teams and you had, I'm not, not a great weekend, but like, Not, I'm not, I'm not really just referencing me, like everyone I talk to is like, I <inaudible> hate this place. Right.

Even guys that Enjoy it Before, it seems like it's been a noticeable drop in correct.

Enjoyability, if that's a Word.

Yes. Yeah.

Interesting. Um, And so, uh, I,

I don't really know that there's a solution to it.

Like it's been brought up several times.

Um, if there's an option to extend it, um, there is not, I mean like look at what, what goes on in practice one, right?

Like, as much as that was great for the internet and that was great comedy for tv, we're talking about willpower getting, we're talking about about Will just driving Kyle through a corner and in front of a corner.

Like that is a product of this racetrack and it being so entirely too small that it's just like, it's just, it's, it's kind of a joke and I don't, I don't know how else to say that, but I think that was highlighted in practice one by like Yeah.

What occurred. Yeah. Um,

It's, it's funny that you've got like a, you've got a track that is so 1.65 miles, right?

By far the shortest road and street course maybe that's ever been on the IndyCar calendar, right? So like, I think for

Reference, I think do this in the world Maybe, um, I wanna say, I wanna say Toronto's like 1.9,

like it's just under two.

So like a, a pretty sizable chunks, like shorter than Toronto.

Um, but it's the same lap time basically as Toronto because actually it's actually a little bit slower lap time because the, the average corner speed is like 54 miles an hour. Surprised

High. Honestly,

There are nine corners.

One's in the thirties, which is turn three one's in the sixties, which is turn two.

Every other corner is in the 51 to 58 mile an hour range.

Mm. Which is like, that's just very, it's,

it's a slow, it's a slow track. It's a slow track.

I mean your first gear in every single corner bar one.

And it looks like there are so many good like clips of drivers trying to get off corners just accelerating outta corners.

And the cars look like they've got a thousand horsepower because everyone's just like for the Thing. Can't

The thing watch on YouTube. I'm

The thing that's, um, that, that's frustrating and I think why it's maybe not enjoyable.

You, you pretty much summed it up, right?

You know, street courses are often about, you know, a level of bravery and commitment.

Commitment, right. Um, that exists and,

and how much track you're willing to use and how close you're willing to get to the walls and, and all that sort of thing.

And while that certainly exists in like turn six, seven with the chicane, like how much, like there's a lot of time to be gained by getting very close to the apex walls, which are not symmetrical and, and all this sort of thing.

The rest of the track is, is kind of just like, it's almost, it's almost akin to driving in the wet where you're just like trying to make every straight as long as possible.

You Right. You're just trying to spend

as little time in the corner as you can and break as late as you can and be as straight on the exit as you can because you're so, you're so limited on longitudinal grip.

Right. And so the cornering phases are not actually

enjoyable 'cause you're not really, like, you're not challenging the car mm-hmm .

In a lot of ways. Like all

of your challenges come from like just trying to get the power down and then trying to stop.

So it's kind of like, it doesn't really reward a lot of commitment.

I mean there is, there's certainly some, especially qualifying of course, like to, to be fast, you've gotta be committed.

But it's not in the same way that you're committed at a St.

Pete or a Long Beach or Toronto.

Um, or certainly at Bell Isle.

So I think that's probably why people feel that way. That's

A good point.

That's a good point. You're right.

'cause yeah, you at 50 miles an hour you can kind of just drive out to the exit.

Like you're not really Like Yeah.

It's not about cars flowing more speed.

'cause it's like you just kind of, And these aren't like small cars, right?

Right. And there's some corners where like the, the width

of the car is about the width of the track.

Like turn one is like, there's not really many options to be creative there.

That was, that was one of the things that was worried me going into the race is they switched the restart zone to turn one Went surprisingly well. I thought it,

It went surprisingly well.

Yeah, we did. We had the one issue with Polo

and Lucas. Yeah. Um,

But like that, that can shoot, But that could have happened Anywhere.

That could happen in St. Pete. Like that's not, and

And, and the, the, the thing that made it like really good is he ended up in, in like, in my opinion, the worst position Polo did cake up against the wall on a restart and the track no one drove in the back of him.

Mm-hmm . Which is kind of the big concern in that you'd lead

to a track blockage pretty easily.

And I think Included that The reason for it, like on paper when you think about it, right?

You're like, oh, why are we moving the restart zone to an area that's even narrower, slower, tighter and harder to pass cold, cold tires, right?

Yeah. Um, and it's, it's kind of the, the cause

and effect is, well, everyone's terrified so no one's gonna make a lunge.

Whereas when you have turn three and you've got an entire straight to talk yourself into doing something and it's wide and it's inviting and it's a big breaking zone where you feel like you can get your s on the table sort of thing.

And that's kind of the, the carnage that we saw over two years.

So while it wasn't necessarily something that you would think, oh, that makes perfect sense.

I think it ended up working out to be a really good change for the race because I, I feel like the race, like yeah, there was yellows.

Yeah, there was a red flag, but not because of like stupid like wall had to be repaired. Um, dude

Race, it was the best race we've had outside of Indy. Like

Well, but also I think the best race at Detroit at that, at that particular track. Yes.

Yes, for sure. Um, okay, let's cover off your race

specifically and then we'll get into the broader, Don't much to say it, it was, it was horse .

Um, we sucked. Um, I, um, I mean we were just lost

for an entire three days, which is quite a weird feeling.

Um, Christian was doing a really good job.

I'm uh, he kicked my ass this weekend.

Like there's no, there's no, uh, other way to put it.

Um, and really sad for him that he didn't get a result, um, From it.

Yeah. What, what it was electrical issues took him out.

No, it was a engine failure. Oh, got it.

TBD on, on the cause.

Um, but yeah, I mean that's a tough, it's a tough two weeks for the team 'cause like the best car at Indy and the best car at Detroit both had mechanicals.

Um, right. So that's, that's not fun.

Um, but that's motor sports, I don't think, I mean there was no human error involved in either of those.

It's just component failures. Um, so yeah.

Uh, a big shame for him.

'cause I think he was gonna have a, a very solid, there's someone running by my house in a <inaudible> Java house 20 jersey.

That's wild .

God, I hope they don't know that you live there.

And that's just what they, I can't tell you what's funny. If

I, I would like that way more If they know, they're just like, I'm gonna hope he is looking out the window and he knows that I'm a fan or no, I hope, I hope he doesn't know I live here anyways.

Um, so I feel terrible for Christian.

'cause like he was on for a yeah, another sixth, seventh, eighth place result, which would've been his two best, uh, career results back to back.

Um, but yeah, uh, on on our side, we, we were just trying to survive and we did.

And um, the team did a good job in pit lane and we maximized our strategy as best we could.

We came away with 10th and it was one of those ones where it's like, thank God you got something out of it. So

Yeah.

You're like kind of can't believe you finished 10th.

Yeah. I mean we Had

Honestly no Right.

Inserted . You've been in the top 10 now at every race

for this track, right? Well

I was top five before this weekend for all Of them.

I was trying to be a, you know, glass half, well because it was Kind of guy about, it was Dixon had finished top five in both.

And I feel like Dixon also was, Was in top five.

Well, hey, he was 11th.

I passed him with two laps ago. So boom.

So you're the only guy that's been, uh, yes, Correct.

Oh no, that's not true. I guess others could have

been also top 10.

Doesn't matter. Doesn't

Matter.

What's your point, Tim? That was it.

I was just saying you've you've been top 10 all three Times just saying how much you like this place.

No, I don't. It's just like, I just feel like I'm

the least stupid and I just don't Don't just don't hit stuff.

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Fair.

Uh, okay, so race itself, um, it was, it was an andretti weekend.

It was an andretti race to lose mm-hmm .

Uh, and they did not, um, Colton got pole.

Kyle should have got pole correct.

I think that's pretty safe to say. Yeah.

Um, it's, it's so tough, man. Do

You know, do you know he was on, he was on for a 59 8.

Was he really? Yeah.

That's what, four tenths quicker? Six Six tenths quicker?

Yeah. Oh yeah. Four tenths quicker than the record,

but six tenths quicker than one.

It actually was, yeah, he was on it.

It was, look, there was no doubt about it.

I mean he and and Colton were kind of the, the class of the field all weekend every session pretty much.

Um, but you gotta get it done.

So this was another weekend of having the new tire rules.

Right. So this, how did you guys think

that affected qualifying? Yeah,

I mean the, the the, the new allocation.

So again, it seems like we're new rules every Yes.

Uh, NDGP was its own thing.

This was back to how it was in St. Pete and Long Beach.

So I don't think it affected qualifying at all.

Like all it does is allow guys to go green, green early.

Um, and if they make it to the fast six, they don't have new.

And if you take the traditional route, you have new and fast six.

So three of the cars in the fast six had new and they were 1, 2, 3, and the other three in the fast six had used and they were 4, 5, 6. So, and

Look, it's, it was a bit of a risk to try to get through Q1 on, uh, on one set.

Huge pace differential.

'cause there's a huge pace differential.

And also like, all you need is a poorly timed red, you know, on when you're out on your soft tire run, if you're doing the hards and the softs and it can, it can totally bone you because tires were taking a second to comp to temperatures.

So it wasn't necessarily just one and done God, Like most people.

How cold was it? It was

weird this entire weekend. It was weird.

It was freezing. Yeah.

One of the practice sessions must have been like FP two or something.

It was like 52 degrees and track temp of like 63.

Mm-hmm . So we were only 10 degrees over the bare minimum

that Firestone requires for cars to be on track.

It's like, man, what is happening? It's June mm-hmm .

What's going on? It's very strange.

Um, so anyway, it was a huge risk, but those guys all got away with it and yeah, they finished 1, 2, 3 in the, in Q3 because they had that extra set.

So kudos to them. Cool. And got it done.

Uh, Kyle tapped the wall, ended up P three, uh, still ended up P three.

Incredible. And then, yeah,

on the race start itself Very clean.

It was clean, it was, there was some good racing, right?

There was some guys getting their elbows out and trying to make moves happen.

And um, Colin kind of got shuffled back a little bit.

Kyle sort of took the lead, which really set the tone.

Um, but yeah, I thought it was, yeah, it was good clean, nice, nice start and kind of went off from there. I

Was, I was, I was blown away with, so obviously we know the street course tire, um, the alternate is pretty weak.

Um, doesn't do a whole stint.

Um, and you know, it's a prime race.

Like that was pretty much like everyone knew that.

Um, and I was blown away.

So the top nine cars start on alternates as you would expect, and then the majority of the field bar, like three or four cars started on the prime.

And I'm, I'm very curious if everyone, 'cause this was me, right?

I started on the Prime was like, oh, I just want to be the first car on the primes because everyone's gonna be on alternates.

Right? And let's hope something works

because there's no way that starting on primes is the correct decision yet the majority of the field did.

Is that because they all had the same thought you did?

No, that's what I'm saying. I think everyone was like, oh,

I'm gonna be the only guy doing this, so I'm obviously gonna get a good result.

And then like 15 cars did it and you're like, the, The, the allocation came out and you text the group, you're like, huh, that's not what I thought was gonna happen.

And I Hmm. Don't love that. Yeah. .

Yeah. Yeah. Very weird.

Like, so I guarantee, so, um, Felix did the old mystery box, right?

Which have Oh, did you Really?

You have 30 minutes after the end of a session, um, to declare Of warmup. Of

Of warmup.

Sorry to declare.

Oh, let's talk about things you have to do after the end of a session. Oh yeah.

I'm getting there late for your weigh in. What the

Hell?

Oh, not late. I never went. So

It still hasn't gone.

Yeah, so anyways, you have 30 minutes after warmup to submit your tire declaration, which is the tires that you choose to start the race on.

Um, it doesn't have to be used or new, it just has to be primer alternate.

And if you don't submit, if basically it defaults to the, um, less favored, less favorable tire choice.

So I guarantee Felix mystery boxed thinking he was gonna get primed and he got alternates and would've been so confused because like he was, he started 15th, no, 14th, right in front of me and like 10 cards around him were all on primes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, yeah. Anyways, thought that was

funny. .

That's funny. What? Yeah, you, you,

'cause sometimes teams will do that, right?

They'll do it. You you call it mystery boss

'cause it's, you intentionally don't submit 'cause you want to just do the opposite of the majority to try to do something different.

But yeah, when you kind of then get the, the curve ball that it was definitely not the choice he thought it was gonna be.

Um, so IndyCar announced they will be implementing a new system for tech and race control moving forward.

So they are, they are investigating a, uh, independent third party to have control over technical inspection, race officiating, all that stuff as early as 2026, which I think Alex, you'll, you can tell me.

But I think it's an incredibly positive move and it's essentially what people have been concerned about. And so

It's amazing.

It's, I think once this proposed thing comes into effect, a lot of, listen, there always be, will be issues.

I mean, formula One has an independent governing body called the FIA and there's plenty of things that have gone on where you think the FIA for sure as well for sure.

But this is, this is the step that needs to be taken to make this a real race championship.

Like that's just reality of it.

So, um, I think it's very good news. I think it's exciting.

I think Doug is very serious about it happening, which means Roger is very serious about it happening.

So it's all, it's all positive things going forward.

Let's get back to Scott and Nolan because it's funny not what happened to Nolan.

Um, no.

All the internet Stuff after all the internet stuff.

Hilarious. So I saw it as Scott had a big run on him

and Nolan broke very early and he, it's still Scott's fault in entirety because when you go, we've talked about this, you get hit from the back insurance insurance adjuster, it doesn't matter what you do, right?

If you have the car that's driving and hits the car in front of you, it's your fault.

Right? So Scott's fault a hundred percent,

but like I could see why he hit him, Right?

Like it Wasn't some egregious, like miscalculation two On Scott's was deep early, so, right.

Yeah.

Um, and yeah, that, that bled over into some, uh, some internet fighting.

So was it all, was it all, did Scott get chirpy back at TK because of tk reposted it with just o okay then, or was there something else?

I assumed because that, that didn't seem like enough to really rile anyone up, but it is Sure. Riled a lot of people

Up.

Well, I think it riled Scott up and then Scott dove in and then TK doubled down.

Mm. And

So where do you guys, I think it's just escalated. Where

Do you guys sit on that?

Because a lot of people seem to think that this is not a great move for TK to do this, but as the driver, is there some part of you that's like, yeah, I want my team principal to go to bat for me?

Or is this just like a weird Distraction being published?

Nobody was, nobody was blame. Nobody was

blaming Nolan for anything.

Okay. Right. So like, yes, TPS should absolutely go to bat

for their drivers even when they're wrong.

Right. Nobody was talking about what, no one,

nobody was saying Nolan did anything wrong.

So it seemed like a weird Yeah, I thinkk started it with like a Oh, you'd misjudged last week and or You No, I think it went on to that.

Okay. I think he just started with, oh, okay.

And then Scott said something, I forget and then they started, yeah, they started talking about like team manager, like, you know, Scott said, you've got my number and Tony said something like, oh, I was trying to find your team manager.

Oh wait, which like, yeah, That seemed, that seemed like a kind of thing with the Yeah.

With those people losing their jobs Were referring.

Exactly. Um,

but like the bigger thing for me, man, like I get that he's a, he's, I mean look, TK ISS a racer, right?

And you never lose that.

It doesn't matter how far outta the car you are.

And let's be honest, he was in the car in in May driving Larson's car.

But I just, I am floored that he had the time during the race from the pit stand to quote tweet and shirt McLaughlin.

I'm like, I'm pretty sure that came out during the race still.

Well if he's on Nolan's stand, he had time, right?

Yeah. I feel like you should have

been moved over to another stand. I don't know.

Listen, I I think it, uh, Tony, Tony is not the traditional team principal guy.

Like we've talked about his rise to this position.

Um, and he's not, I don't even, and this is no disrespect to Tony whatsoever.

No, I don't even know that that like other team principles in the paddock view him as their peer as much as he's the, he's the boss, but he's also the, the spokesperson of the, the real boss.

And Tony will tell you that like he, he does what Zach says, like he has an opinion and he can, he can help influence Zach, but Zach is making these decisions ultimately.

Um, yeah, yeah, yeah. Whereas Chip is

not answering to anyone.

Ed is not answering to anyone.

Like, so anyways, uh, so that being said, Tony is, Tony is who he is.

And so the tweet didn't bother me, um, at all because like, I, it's not, it wasn't disrespectful like this, the follow up one was, and I'm sure he probably regrets that, but like, it wasn't, it wasn't bad.

It was like, man, my guy just got dumped.

He was having a really good race and it was through no fault of his own really.

And so you just put Oh, okay.

On a video that Fox, Twitter, IndyCar, Fox IndyCar Twitter posted.

So it's like I don't have a problem with that. Um,

I, yeah, it was the timing. I was more confused

about .

I mean, Maybe not, I dunno what, what I go on Twitter commercial breaks. So

What is, what is any team principal doing on a timing stand?

Not influencing the race?

No, I guess not. I guess

Not.

I mean, they're not, come on.

No, no, I know. I I I'm not disagreeing.

Yeah. I guess if there Dale a caution

Dale.

Dale is because Dale is actually calling a race, but like Bobby ra hall ain't calling a race I feel like Aside from I feel like Chip.

Yeah, chip. Nope. Chimes in. I'm, Mike does Ed chimes in

Ed, ed ed chimes in with opinions, but he's not making defacto decisions.

No, no, no. Yeah, yeah. But like you're part of the, it

Doesn't matter.

I'm sorry. You can't, you can't have your

phone on you while you're doing that.

No like, it's not that hard to refresh Twitter. Dude.

, if I could do it in the car, I would. Yeah,

Fair. Yeah. Didn't

Santino get in trouble for that?

Yeah, well make it two things he's gotten in trouble for anyways.

Um, so the other incident to happen was, uh, definitely no fault of anyone's and very thankful that everyone was good, but having a IndyCar suspension failure, trust Me when you consider Right.

Didn't think about that, but like when you consider, when you consider how much we hit the walls and bang off each other and sort of thing, it's very surprising that like, just under breaking it snapped And like, I still, I still don't know exactly which part snapped.

I I'm sure it's been said, I just haven't looked into it yet.

But like it was so bizarre.

Foster just hits the brakes at the end of the back straight into three, right front collapses spears into the wall, collects uh, fro in a big hit man.

Like when you watch fros onboard, you know, he's slowing down to said 30 miles an hour that the apex speed is and turn three.

And then the guy just is accel like the feeling from inside the car of being on the brakes turning in and then all of a sudden accelerate to what must have been, he must have been doing 60 miles an hour when he hit the wall.

Like that must be the weirdest.

And he said, he's like, I didn't see it coming.

Like sometimes you like glance in your mirror and you see a guy coming outta control, you're like, ah, this is gonna suck.

He wasn't even, didn't see it.

He came from the other side of the car, so didn't see him coming.

Just accelerates, smashes the wall sideways.

Worst way to hit it. And then from foster standpoint,

he hits the wall, has now no control of the car whatsoever and is just staring at the gearbox of another car.

Like that's a terrifying feeling.

Yeah, no, I mean it's uh, how does that happen, I guess is the question?

Like, is it Like, oh, do we think this could be a, a factor of how bumpy the track is?

I don't think you can rule that out. I would

Prefer if we find a way to blame it on the hybrid.

I feel like we blame the hybrid for everything else.

So I mean, extra weight is more s stress on these components, dude. It's,

It's just a mass equation.

It's inertia. Um, luckily everybody was okay.

He's okay. Yeah. Yeah. Both guys were okay.

A little shook up, understandably, but then it's weird man.

'cause I mean obviously unrelated, but then both the 15 and the 30 had like wheel nut issues of some kind. Dev lost a tire

In the 90, Maybe twice the 90 had a tire come off, which was very strange.

Uh, he had the, the 15 couldn't get it off or on or something.

They were hammering at wheel nuts.

So like again, is this, that one's weird 'cause there's like two teams had the same thing, but then iot had the same thing, like you said.

So is this, is this something to do with the track and the bumps and the whatever, like that seems like a weird one but I feel like the promo one was just a new team situation.

Like they've been struggling with pit stops.

They were probably rushing 'cause he was, you know, in for a good result, that sort of thing.

And just didn't get the wheel nut on.

Like that happened to me at McLaren last year at Bar. Right?

Like that happens. Yeah. Um, hilarious. Not hilarious.

It kind of hilarious that he hit the wall and then apparently caught the wheel nut.

Like the wheel nut came into the cockpit.

No. Yeah. Which is .

He would've been like, oh, I know what happened.

Which would've been like such a sigh of relief because like in that moment you're like, oh, did I just on a cold tire stove this thing into the wall?

Right? And then when you realize the wheel nuts in your lap

and the tire's on the car, you're like, ha wasn't me.

I'm good. You guys are

assholes. .

I'm a little more, I'm a little relieved.

I'm definitely more angry than I was.

Yeah, for sure. But I'm a little more relieved,

Way less embarrassed. .

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Um,

How, how fast does that come into your guys' minds when you're, when that happens immediately?

Oh, you immediately Before, even before you even hit the wall, like as you're going towards the wall, you're like, I cannot believe I balled this up.

This is insane. And then you hit it, you're like,

you have one job as a driver, it's to not hit stuff.

Okay. I guess you have more than that, but

You're supposed to win and It's the first thing to do.

You can't win if need sponsors. Right.

So like number one, once you're in the car, 'cause you have sponsors and then you get in the car, right?

It's a, it is a cycle here Tim. Um, so yeah.

Very bad day for RLL, which is unfortunate for them.

It's great qualifying, I mean Graham huge. Yeah.

Returning to the fast six on not in DGP, uh, huge dude On a street circuit.

Like they've been pretty bad at street circuits.

So like it was, and then he had the engine penalty, so I felt bad for him already because yeah, he had to cop the penalty and didn't get a start in the top six mm.

Um, that penalty promoted Palo up to fifth mm.

Soot had his first day not finishing first or second in an IndyCar race through no fault of his own First day since 2022 Road America that he's DNF 2022, no, 2022, no Iowa.

He crashed in Iowa last year.

Maybe he, maybe they took it to the pits and got back out lapsed down or something.

And so it wasn't qualified as a DNF, but I'm Like, well Nathan Brown, Nathan Brown, our guy.

I hope it was Nathan Brown.

Anyways, someone on the interwebs uh, said ties back to our earlier conversation of not wanting to do it. Yeah. Um, I think

It's a box score thing.

Um, but yes, again, no fault zone.

Lucas just got into him kind of the same way.

I mean different but same as like Scott got into Nolan, he ends up with the wall, still has a very healthy, healthy, healthy, healthy, healthy lead.

I guess the bad thing for Palo is that the only other guy that's won a race this year also won this race.

So, you know, points wise, had Kyle not been DQ in Indie, he'd be, you know, like seconding the championship and, and even closer.

Um, so there's that. What else happened? I don't know.

Indy car memes is back in car.

Uh, Dave, David, David had a good weekend that that got away from him.

Yeah. Um, great Qualifying

A lot of room, A lot of rumors swirling around about old, old Dave Lucas and uh, Willie P this weekend.

Who knows what's true. Obviously there's been a rumor now

for at least a year linking David to the 12 car and a lot of people assumed that was a foregone conclusion when he signed with Fot instead of MSR, which is the Penske kind of satellite operation.

Um, but then Will is still doing really good things.

So I think that there was like, oh well why would they replace him if Will is still challenging for championships and wins every weekend.

Um, so yeah, that's kind of a another silly season thing that's gonna come down our way.

'cause it's really, I mean Will is really the only free agent this year of any sort of notoriety.

I mean I feel like you've got your Connors and your dev single guys, Louis Foster.

Right. But like Will is the one of the main guys

that is in a contract here.

Is Ericsson in a contract Here?

No. Okay. That doesn't mean anything though. .

Well, yeah, we do know that. We've

Seen.

Yeah. Um, so speaking of, of Willie p you know, going back

to practice and just unnecessarily inappropriately driving into another car, did you watch the F1 race? Uh, or did hear about

I know who you're talking about.

Yeah. Old Max, man,

Tough luck bud.

You know, we've, we've talked up Max on this show a lot.

Love the guy. Rightfully so.

'cause I mean, I, I don't know, I still think the most talented racing driver on earth right now.

Oh, for sure. Um, I, I like him as a dude.

I think he's a good dude. But

that was not a good look getting told to seat a position to George Russell late in the race.

And as he let George Russell by just like rolled off the brakes and intentionally crashed into him.

Now they both continued. It was two laps to go.

George got the place back and fine Max deservedly so got a penalty.

But man, like that's, you just can't, you just can't do that stuff man. And

Now he's only one point away from having a race band. Right.

That's the other thing. I don't know when the first points

come off his license, but he's literally one point.

Could you imagine if the reigning world champion?

Well here's the thing. Misses a race

Now.

Who the fuck are they putting in? . .

That is such a good point, man. Of all of it.

The most, the craziest thing about it is they're literally out of drivers.

And I don't, I don't even know where you'd start. Yeah.

Hey, hey Dan. Be one more, one more. Yeah. . Sorry pal.

We need one more outta you. The beard. That's a great point.

I don't even know who's reserved for them anymore.

'cause they just keep pushing guys into race seats. So,

Or death Or, yeah.

Or, or, and their careers. Um, yeah, that's a great point.

So, or is Max at the point where he is like, I don't think we're gonna win this championship.

I got a new kid at home. I'll just, I'm just gonna go like,

cut the track at Montreal, get a five second penalty and one penalty point, and then take the next Dick Austria off and just hang out with the wife and kid for a weekend play More.

I racing. He is that level of, of uh, not giving a fuck.

Um, you bring up a, I don't know that you were trying to make this connection, Tim, but you bring up a good point.

I do wonder how much of that was subconscious, something he does in I racing and it just, it just leaked out into real life because we know how much time he spends on the sim and how he lives on the sim.

I could very easily see like, you get penalties in iRacing too.

I could very easily see him doing that as his like, oh, I gave the place back.

So the, the AI computer shows that the car was in front you.

I just wonder if it was like a snap in his head.

It's more like, yeah, just like the, it's just, it's it's reps, right?

Like it's muscle memory.

Like in I racing people do like that all the time. Mm-hmm .

And I mean, they shouldn't do it there either, but much, much, much lower, uh, video cost.

Video. Yeah, exactly. Much lower penalty.

But, uh, yeah, I mean, he came out apologized for it. It's still, I mean,

The next day.

Yeah. And like, even, even the Apology wasn't the best,

but, um, yeah, I don't know man.

That's a, that's a tough one. And the fact again,

the fact that he's one point away Still love him, it's fine.

Uh, he's, there's no way he's gonna, he he's gonna be walking on eggshells now. Uh, no.

God no. I want to, I mean, I didn't watch the race,

but I mean, holy shit, Oscar man, he's it.

He's, he's the guy And that is, that is mind boggling to say, um, just because of a, how good Lando is and b because it's his third year.

Yeah. That's, and all of the questions

that were surrounding him, rightfully so.

Not because any fault of his own.

Like it's a lot to learn and that's a lot to take in, right.

Especially when you're at the pointy end and you're being analyzed on every single decision you make.

And every single phase of the weekend is being critiqued.

Like he has risen to the occasion and above on all of them.

Like all it was all going into this year.

Like, so in 2024 it was like, alright, you gotta figure out how to match Lando in race pace.

You kind of sorted that out.

But it was like pretty weak and qualified, not weak, but Lando had his number on qualifying going in 2025.

You gotta, you gotta be in front of Lando to be on the preferred strategy now that you got the race pace figured out.

'cause you're not just gonna drive around him.

Tick that box. It's incredible. Is rated of development.

And what I wanna like draw attention back to is, 'cause like he, you know, he's won five races now this year.

I, I don't remember if he's won them all from Pole, but he's pretty much has won them all for Pole, right?

Like you drive away, you're in the, you're in a good car, you have pole, you drive away and it's fine.

But there's been a lot of drivers that have been in that position that once they're back in the <inaudible> and they've gotta scrap it out.

They don't have the racecraft the same way.

But because he wasn't just up there like the last two years, he's proven his racecraft is incredible and his, his passing, his ability to overtake when he needs to is I would say on par with the best out there.

You know, better than Lando on par with Max on par with Alonzo.

'cause he's pulled off some pretty stout moves and um, if he ever has to mix it up, we know he is perfectly capable.

He hasn't really had to do it.

He just lives, he doesn't, he has no peaks and valleys right?

That guy's, that guy's natural mentality is so even keeled that he doesn't go up and down.

It's just he lives at this level and what he's done is he's just raised that level so high that it's now at a point where you can qualify and poll and win Formula One races.

So it's really, really impressive to watch.

It's gotta be kind of frustrating and, and getting to the point where it's frustrating for Lando it's, it's five wins to two.

Still a lot of racing to go, no doubt.

But, um, yeah man, it's, it's gonna be interesting to see how these two kind of fight it out over the rest of the year.

Um, and what, you know, does that change Lando for the better or for the worse?

Right? Does that make him find another gear and step it up

or does that start just eating away at 'em and actually forcing 'em into more mistakes?

You know, it's, uh, it's gonna be interesting to see how that plays out.

That all said, everybody's got a week off.

F one's not racing next week.

Any car's not racing next week?

How are you spending your time Off with my kid? It's weird to say.

It's weird to say 'cause like, especially on here, we've only been talking about it for like a couple weeks.

Hmm. Even though we knew it was coming for a while.

Um, so you're just hanging out at home and Changing Diapers and Yeah, we're not, yeah, We're gonna hang at home, man.

Like this is, uh, June is a, a fairly easy month, um, relative to July and August.

You know, it's, we have the first one off, then two in a row, then weekend off, and then, you know, hell's Fury comes upon us. ,

Um, also known as July, Right?

So we are, yeah, we're just gonna chill at home this weekend and recoup and get into a rhythm.

Um, and then Gateway, uh, we'll talk about it next week, but super pumped about that night race.

Prime time Sunday night tv. Yeah. It's gonna be badass.

So, uh, yeah, lots to look forward to.

Very exciting. I, um, decided to not take the weekend off.

Uh, I'm heading out to Western Canada to, uh, Jacques Vov track out there for, uh, appreciation Day for all the members out there at Area 27 went last year was good fun.

Becky was supposed to come this year.

Becky went ahead and got a job.

So Becky's up in Toronto area working. Yeah. Yeah.

So again, she again Had to bail again.

I don't, I I don't know why you live it.

M gonna have what? I bleep that out. .

See? Yeah, see.

Yeah. No, I know.

It's, uh, it's weird having, it's weird having a house.

It's just like a big hotel room at this point.

Um, and a laundry stop. But it's funny.

So Becky's working and she took Lucy, her little dog with her, but I've got Sully the big guy.

And so the boys are just kind of hanging out this week, having fun, going on walks.

We're gonna go swimming tomorrow.

We're gonna get in the pool. In the pool. So yeah.

So I'll be out there, uh, driving cars and, and chatting people and, and hanging with, with jv, which is actually cool.

He was like one of my childhood heroes growing up.

And it's fun to like get to bull about the good old days.

I love talking to old racing drivers because like, I realize I am one now, but older ones than me.

'cause they've got cool stories. Uh,

not like Hunter Ray old, that's just like, no, you got nothing in common with him.

Mm-hmm . Like, it's weird, um, trying to talk to him.

But, uh, yeah man, that's, that's the weekend.

So excited to go out there. Gonna miss Becky.

Uh, wish she was coming, but she's working hard.

Miss Becky, I think we'll all miss, miss Becky. Don't

Worry.

She'll be back soon and then we'll all hang out.

We'll come visit little, little Benji.

Hmm. Little, uh, little, little benjay.

Tim won't be there, right? No.

Oh, I'm coming. God, no. I've love babies. It

Was nice getting to Tim's mom's place and stepdad's place and seeing them and playing some bocce the other day. That was fun.

All right, well see you guys next week. God

Willing, this has been off track with Hinch and Rossi Off Track is part of the SiriusXM Sports Podcast Network.

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